Doug Lindley/Idaho State Journal
Construction work goes on behind Tim England and his father, Doug, who are co-owners of the new Sears Hometown store that is going to open on Garrett Way in Pocatello. They’ve scheduled a soft opening Nov. 17 and a grand opening on Dec. 22.

By Shelbie Harris, sharris@journalnet.com

POCATELLO — Pocatello will add a fresh destination just in time for the Christmas season, thanks to Tim England, owner of the new Sears Hometown store slated to open Nov. 17 in the old Napa Auto Parts store at 2215 Garrett Way.

Just two years after the Sears store in the Pine Ridge Mall closed its doors, Tim and his father, Doug, the brother of Chubbuck Mayor Kevin England, are bringing the Sears name back to the Gate City.

“I was thinking about opening a Daylight Donuts because Chick-fil-A turned me down, so I needed a doughnut to fill that gap in my soul,” Tim said. “I was hunting around trying to find a place, and there was an ad in the classifieds of the Journal that said ‘Do you want to open up a Sears store.’”

“Sears doesn’t do that,” Doug said.

After some online research, however, and a phone call to Sears’ 1-800 number, Tim got a phone call the next day.

The pipe dream that started in February is becoming a reality for the former truck driver.

“I was driving mail from here to Boise and back and then they switched the mail processing to Salt Lake,” Tim said. “So I was driving an empty trailer for about a year, but the writing was on the wall. I knew things were going to change.”

Sears stores are divided into two separate categories — Sears Roebuck, and Sears Hometown and Outlet stores.

“The Hometown stores are new, but it’s great straight-from-Sears stuff,” Tim said. “But the real kick is this store is locally owned and operated. It’s going to be our store and we’re here to serve the customers that we know. I mean, we live here so that’s really the cool thing about this whole franchise.”

The Englands will own the store, but will be backed by the Sears name. This means that customers can still take advantage of programs such as the Sears credit card, local price matching and lease-to-own options, while still supporting a locally owned business.

“We’ll stock lawn and garden, appliances, mattresses, and Craftsman and DeWalt tools,” Doug said.

In addition to the merchandise on the sales floor, the store is equipped with an online kiosk that allows patrons to browse items online and have them shipped to the store, or directly to their home. Plus, Tim and his employees will receive a notification when purchases are made online for items already at the store.

“We can just call them up and tell them we have it here and save them the hassle of waiting for it to ship,” Tim said.

The Hometown store allows Tim to also use local businesses for the benefit of his store. He turned to BengalWorks for his business cards and Old Town Embroidery for the employee shirts.

“Because we are locally owned and operated, we feel it’s important to keep other businesses that are local going forward,” Tim said. “I think that’s why it’s such a cool thing.”

Though the soft opening and ribbon-cutting is set for Nov. 17, Tim said the hard opening is on Dec. 22, just in time for the holiday shopping craze.

“It’s going to be a big deal,” Tim said. “Sears does quite a bit and we’ll have some really great sales.”